The Digital Family Reunion – Dec 11

11 Nov
2008

Save…the…date = Dec 11, 2008

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This is going to be so much fun. My friends are putting together a historic holiday party on Dec 11, featuring the community of web and tech from all the local groups, together at the Skirball. Some of the smartest, hippest people are driving this project and the list of affiliates is oustanding. Stay tuned for further detail on featured guests and events for the night. Check out www.digitalfamilyreunion.net

Popularity: 75% [?]

  • In: Friends
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It’s a Blockbuster Night

31 Aug
2008

Everytime I walk into Blockbuster I have high hopes of finding that great indi film or the off-the-wall documentary – perhaps a smart, entertaining romantic comedy I can bear to watch with my wife.

One scan of the new release wall and I’m totally perplexed. Sometimes I stoop to 2 min load times of Rotten Tomatoes’s New DVD Release rating percentages on my prehistoric, windows mobile Treo. I’ve had business ideas for Blockbuster about every visit. You hear the frustration, no need to continue rambling.

Check this article out – Can Blockbuster Be Saved?

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Seems to be a logical yes. It’s a Humongous brand. Some of us grew up going there religiously, more than the golden arches for most.

It’s also a necessity, they’ve blasted out any other attempt at retail rental and they’re the only choice for that last minute decent video rental option. Albertson’s was a lonely hope with in-store rentals for $1/week, but they just went to the kiosk.

The Kiosk has my vote occasionally, in rare sequence of big hollywood making a good movie. The Kiosk is the top 40 jukebox.

For me, it’s no different than FM radio – it’s content has been heard repeatedly for years and you can almost predict what the next song in rotation is.

[ BUT now my radio is stuck on 100.3 the Sound of L.A. It plays a crop of what I consider to be a real playlist for my target market. (Unfortunately, KCRW doesn't make it above the hills of the valley to my neighborhood) ]

Blockbuster needs to focus on a new target – me. Let’s make it easier to find a movie. Let’s bring in some sort of ratings system – RottenTomatoes.com perhaps – add critics to user ratings and suggest movies through a kiosk. Make cases smaller and house more movies! Think of the library – KIOSK – Add 4 Kiosks – one at each corner. I’m sure movie licensing is cheap nowadays, be the library of movies.

Even the library is competition – I rent every Sunday – free documentaries and $2/week rentals of catalog hollywood titles.

Any suggestions for big blue? IF you see the light, put your money where your mouth is – Stocks are $2 a share!

In case you missed it – Can Blockbuster Be Saved?

Popularity: 75% [?]

  • In: Brands
  • Tags: Blockbuster Stock 100.3 Sound of LA RottenTomatoes.com
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Peer not, you are not a Peon

21 Aug
2008

Though I haven’t gone to one of Joel Ordesky’s events, I enjoy his invites which he uses to lay the context for his mixer conversation – awesome. This one deserves passing around a bit – ExecTec on Being a Peer not a Peon. Sometimes unfortunate, perception is reality, especially in a corporate environment. However, Joel hits a strong point of emphasizing the importance of being yourself and taking ownership of what you do. These parallel life principles as well, check yourself with his recommendations.

Popularity: 18% [?]

  • In: Career
  • Tags: Joel Ordesky ExecTec
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Top 35 Innovators Under 35

20 Aug
2008

Technology Review : TR 35 : 2008 Young Innovators under 35

Technology Review collected a team of judges from across the science and technology educational spectrum to produce this awesome list of leading innovators and their successful projects. Reading through some of the stories, I went from Re-creating photosynthesis to re-thinking e-mail (found Xobni for Outlook- great program!)

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For example, Robert Wood is working on Robotic flies. Yes, as in the little annoying flying bugs. His project is building insect-sized robots. Craziness.

What I love most is it elevates science and technology with the rockstar-funded web products we focus a lot of attention on.

Click here for a complete list of the 2008 TR35.

Popularity: 14% [?]

  • In: Tech
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SiteLab’s Top Ten SEO No-No’s

16 Aug
2008

spacer SiteLab has for years focused on SEO under search engine maven, Dana Todd. Just received an e-mail from them with a nice list of top 10 ‘No-No’s', with good suggestions for a wholistic effor to increase appropriate traffic.

“SiteLab’s Top Ten SEO No-No’s

1. Using Black Hat SEO techniques or vendors – Tactics known as “black hat” are those that attempt extreme manipulation of known SEO techniques. Explicitly frowned upon in the industry, tactics include keyword stuffing, using link farms, and hidden text.

2. Designing a site in Flash – Flash design can engage users however, it can also hinder the ability of search engines to index the content found on that site. A site developed entirely of Flash web pages has no guarantee for search engines to “crawl” the site therefore eliminating the ability to appear in top search engine listings.

3. Not researching keyword traffic – If you never research the keywords searchers are using, how do you know what keywords to put on your page? Often time’s companies ignore the language that searchers are using, instead focusing on marketing phrases or internal jargon used commonly in the company. The problem with this is that your customers don’t work for your company and they don’t use your marketing slogans.

4. Changing URLs/domain without using 301 redirects – The domain of any site is like its address. What happens when someone changes their address, but doesn’t leave a forwarding address? The same thing that happens when a website changes its domain or URLs without leaving 301 re-directs. Establishing 301 re-directs whenever any URLs or domains change will give your site the best opportunity to maintain its SEO reputation.

5. Duplicate content – Search engines work by exploring the Internet and copying everything to their own servers. Make sure content is not duplicated elsewhere or else that content runs the risk of being ignored by the search engines. Once ignored by the search engines, it will be especially difficult to regain their attention.

6. Repeating the same title tag on multiple pages – Imagine browsing a library where the titles of all the books were identical! The title tag describes what’s on any individual page in your site. To give different pages the best chance to be found by different searchers, title tags must be uniquely crafted to suit the content on each individual page.

7. Ignoring best practices – There are a number of low effort SEO tactics that are generally just good habits of web design in general. An example of good practice: Put keywords in ALT tags, page file names, headlines, title tags and link anchor text. Never over stuff these elements with keywords, but it is acceptable and important to describe whenever possible.

8. Reciprocal linking/linking to bad neighborhoods – Earn PageRank by getting as many links from other sites as possible. However, there are sites with a reputation for using “black hat” tactics. Linking to one of these sites could potentially damage a site’s reputation since it indicates support for an illegitimate practice. Do not attempt to gain quick PageRank by linking to a site that promises quick gains with little effort.

9. Poor “non-descriptive” link anchor text – Anchor text or text link tells the search engines what the linked site is about. Using non-descriptive anchor text such as “Click here”, “More Information”, or “Find Out More” really misses an SEO opportunity to give make the search engines align a keyword with that linked page.

10. Server is often inaccessible to search bots – If your site is often down or can’t be crawled by search bots, then there’s no reason for your site to rank highly. When a site goes down for more than 48 hours, search bots have a tendency to not come back and drop the site from rankings dramatically.

If this is Greek to you or you don’t have the internal resources or talent to develop and manage your SEO strategy, SiteLab can help. Our goal is to build your brand and drive qualified traffic to your online door step. Help is just a click away! Contact Us today at info@sitelab.com or call 858 456-4720.”

Popularity: 10% [?]

  • In: SEO
  • Tags: SiteLab Search Engine Ranking Dana Todd SEOo
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Experiment: Gilmore Gang meet Steve Boyett

20 Jul
2008

Gilmore Gang, enough said. DJ Steve Boyett, perhaps you haven’t heard of his Groovelectric DJ mixes – Love this podcast. Sometimes I crank them both when I’m in the groove. Tried a little experiment – dropped them both into Audacity, made a few amateur tweaks and hit export. This could work with someone that knows how to mix. (Kept Steve’s Classic Charlie Roseish Intro – Be patient until :45) Enjoy.

[Audio Removed 7-23]

Popularity: 5% [?]

  • In: Music
  • Tags: Gilmore Gang Steve Boyet
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NME : Thirst for Music

15 Jul
2008

NME goes deep into the history of rock and punk music in the UK. It’s streaming radio station popped up a few years ago and I was running it daily. It recently launched a new community site with a whole new program for it’s stream – it’s bad ass. Not only does it play the best new music, but they’ve tied in some docs and live shows from now and then. For streams from the U.K., I float between Radio 1 and NME. If you want to get energized and revived with fresh new music: www.nme.com/radio

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Popularity: 4% [?]

  • In: Streaming Radio
  • Tags: NME Radio Nmeradio.com Streaming Radio
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The Verve is Back – It’s Better Sweet

15 Jul
2008

This generation of The Verve is experiencing a new insightful, spiritual, and dance-rockish summer anthem. It’s tough to beat an 8 bar repetition of intense, catchy, melodically droning background vocals. I’m probably going to hear this in every franchise and soon to be mobile phone commercial, but for now, I’m hooked. It wasn’t but 10 years ago the tempo was half time, taking me to depressing lows with Bittersweet Symphony. I’m down right excited to hear what else is behind this track. I’ll enjoy the celebration for now.

I present “Love is Noise” by The Verve

Popularity: 5% [?]

  • In: Music
  • Tags: The Verve Love is Noise Bitter Sweet Symphony
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July MOTM – Meeting of the Minds

4 Jul
2008

This month’s MOTM was better than ever. MOTM has evolved into a great atmosphere for our friends to get together to chat about the live web and find opportunities to take part. It’s grown organically, beyond our initial lunch of four people, into a tech exploration and problem solving community mechanism. I love it when friends call me after the event to tell me they’ve learned something big and met a like-mind to work together with.

It was great having Bryan Monroe this month from Eventful.com showing their demand it technology and driving conversation on the 2.0 event concept.

Special thanks to Ben Kuo & Wil Fernandez for the amazing photos and TechZulu for shooting video.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

  • In: MOTM
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